TIE PILOT
by Andrew
Summary: An Imperial TIE Pilot and his defection to the New Republic


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TIE **PILOT**

By **Andrew** **Liptak**

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"Rage Lead to Rage 5, pull back to sector 6 mark 76 by 45 alpha" 

"Copy Rage Lead, pulling, back."

"Heavy fire in sector 9 gamma."

"I'm hit!"

"Get clear 6!"

Rejan Lonar pulled his TIE fighter clear of the explosion that Rage 6 left behind. The rebel assault was a surprise, and the Rebels had launched their fighters before Control had time to blink. Ryahn'ful was a small out of the way world with little to offer the Rebels. There was a small shipyard that turned out the occasional indictor cruiser or light ship but there was only TIE construction facilities and shield and hyperdrive units that were made for Kuat drive yards. 

An X-Wing flew past Rejan from behind, where there was a small blind spot. The pilots brought up his targeting unit and targeted the X-Wing. The first shot blew off the top of the R5 unit's flowerpot head and the next two shots breached the canopy and the fighter started a long graceful dive to the planet surface. The Rebel ships, a Mon Calamari light cruiser, a fighter transport, and an assault cruiser. There were sixteen enemy fighter squadrons out there, and about five had been blown apart.

These Rebels know nothing about warfare. Rejan thought as the TIE fighters blew more two fighters apart. 

"Rage, Storm, Wolf, Fire and Shock squadrons move forward to sector 5 mark 83 by 12 beta" Controls voice came on over the comm. "The Rebels are starting a bombing run right over the shield generators. Clear them off".

Rejan pulled his fighter around and headed over with his squadron. The rebels might have had luck at Yavin, but it's about time that that luck has run out. As if on cue, the Rage squadron descended on the Y-Wing fighters like a Krayt Dragon on a herd of Banthas. The Y-Wings were slower than most of the rebel ships, and these were no exception. Rejan pulled in behind one of the Y-Wings. His targeting system worked at getting a laser lock on the ship. When the system found it, the W-Wing started to juke around in its flight path. The pilot must have a target lock warning system. Rejan thought as the fighter fell into his targeting scope. He squeezed the triggers and sent out a blast of plasma that shorted out the Y-Wing's shields and destroyed the hapless Y-Wing. 

"All Fighters in sector 5 mark 83 by 76 and below, pull out immediately." What the ... 

The reinforcements for the base had arrived in form of an Imperial Star Destroyer and two Victory Star Destroyers. The Rebels had no change to blink before they were blown apart.

***

"Did you see that ship just blow apart?" Krys, Rejan's wingman asked. "It just blew! And that arrival that that destroyer made, yikes, I bet those Rebels were just blown away by it." They laughed at the joke. "Blown away, Ha Ha Ha." 

They arrived in their dorm, with most of the other pilots already there. They were all chatting about their victory over the Rebels and the arrival of the Bastion. Most of the pilots were new and had never seen an Imperial Star Destroyer except in simulations. When Krys and Rejan walked in, they all started clapping.

"The newest Ace has arrived!" Gronj, Rage 5, shouted above the storm of noise. The title "Ace" was given to a pilot who got five kills on a mission. With TIE pilots, it was a great honor indeed. TIE fighters were the fighters of the Empire. They were fast, shieldless and deadly. Not many TIE pilots got to the title of ace and fewer even made it past their third mission. The Rebels, they hide behind their shields and cower with fear. Rejan thought as a small statue of a TIE pilot made of steel was passed to him. He looked at the miniature thing and saw that there were many details that were not found on many "Ace" trophies. They must have bought it somewhere. He smiled, and then the dorm returned to its normal decorum. Rejan slumped down on his bed and immediately fell asleep.

***

The wake-up alarm woke Rejan up at about three hours too early for him. He groaned and got out of his bunk along with the other pilots. He got dressed in a jump suit and got out his datapad. Yes! Two more days 'til leave. He thought, thinking of what he would do. He had three days off and he intended to use those days well. The squadron moved to the briefing room to find out about their next mission. The briefing room was a dark gray with lights on the ceiling to light it. The pilots took seats at the back of the room, at their assigned seating area. The TIE commander and a tactical officer came in. They got out their datapad and the briefing started. 

"This mission you are about to get is a vital one. The Rebels have made a small base that they used to stage off of to attack our base. To ensure that this will not happen again, You will be sent to this base to destroy it." He paused, "Tactical officer Targon will brief you on the technical aspects of this mission.

Targon stepped forward. He was a tall man, with dark hair and a certain "Imperialness" to him. He started his talk. "The Rebel base is in a system that is about five light days away. You will be brought to and from the this system, which is code named Green 5, by the Star Destroyer Bastion. The base houses thousands of rebel officers and pilots, as well as fighters and supplies" He brought up a hologram of the base. "The Bombers will come down on this path, two squadrons of TIEs will escort you in. Once you reach this area, you will drop the bombs on this point and get out of there as fast as you can."

Rejan could feel the excitement rise in the room. Most of these pilots had never been on a Star Destroyer, and this was a newer one. You are to report to your fighters today at 1200 hours. More information will be given out then. Dismissed."

***

Rejan and Krys walked to the hanger where their TIEs were kept. They were both excited by this mission and were wondering what would happen. 

"Maybe we will get to try out those new fighters, the TIE Interceptors." Krys said. "They are supposed to be even faster than the regular TIEs."

"Who knows? I just want a piece of those X-Wings again. THAT was hard to do. It's good to be challenged once and awhile" 

They entered the hanger and found that Krys got his wish. Sitting two meters above them were twelve brand new TIE Interceptors.

"Yes!" Krys said, staring up at the Interceptors.

"They are nice aren't they?" A voice from behind them asked. "Factory new, not even smudged from pilots feeling them." Rejan and Krys whirled around. Rage Leader was standing behind them. He was a tall man, and was dressed in a TIE suit. He had a helmet under his arm and was studying the two young pilots with interest. 

"We won't do any live flight exercises yet, rookies in these ships are prone to whipping around too fast and crashing into his wingman. Not good." He turned to the other pilots, who, in their amazement with the new ships, Rejan and Krys had not heard enter the hanger. "We will be in simulators for the time being, until all of you get the feel for the ship. Then we will have our first live fire mission." He gestured towards the sim room. "This way."

***

Rejan was just getting into the simulator that he was assigned to, when Rage Leader called out over the helmet comm unit, "Get in, strap in, and go to target asteroid 12 alpha."

Rejan did as told and soon the pilots were flying over an asteroid field. He brought up the mission log and found out that they were flying over and soon, into the edges of the Hoth asteroid belt.

"This simulation is based on the escape route taken by some rebels escaping from the Hoth base. You are to fly for three kilometers and then into the belt. Don't hit any of the asteroids. Good luck." Rage Leader told them as they flew over the belt. Then they flew towards the huge rocks that made up the belt. 

Suddenly, his targeting scope chimed; there was an unknown ship ahead of them, bearing in to the belt. 

"Rage Squadron, the ship ahead of you is an enemy. Target and destroy."

"As ordered" Rejan replied and took off after the ship. 

The pilot of the YT-1300 was very good; he took heart dropping turns over the asteroids and around them with precision.

"Rage Squadron, brake into flights, one flight, after the fighter, two flight, cover them, three flight, stay behind in case of an ambush." Rage Leader's voice came on again. "Watch the asteroids."

Rejan flew after the fighter with Krys and the other two that made up One Flight, Oumis and Gronj. They shot past asteroid after asteroid at breakneck speed, with only luck keeping them from hitting on of the asteroids. Gronj took a break to port in stead of starboard and slammed into on of the ship-sized rocks. Nothing left there, Finish the mission at all costs, Finish the mission at all costs, was going through his head; one of the first things that was drilled into him at the academy that he attended. Oumis was the next to go, when a fighter-sized asteroid flew right into his path. Only Krys and me left. The YT-1300 flew towards a larger asteroid, on the size of a small moon. They must be going to a clearer area, Rejan thought.

"Rage 7, try to cut them off, there could be many places were a ship of that size could hide." Rejan said to his wingman. " My scopes say that this asteroid is covered with holes and cliffs."

"I copy, 6. I'm following them in." 

The YT-1300 shot across the surface obviously looking for a place to hide, or at least to lose his pursuers. Tipping up on one side, the ship roared into a rift that looked especially dangerous. 

"Six, should we go up top and follow from above?" Krys asked. 

"Negative, there could be some kind of cave down there and we can lose them fast. No telling what they'll do." Rejan replied. Following their sensors, they were able to follow the ship easily. Then the rift got narrower. Krys and Rejan, flying side by side, veered in to avoid hitting the walls. 

"PULL OUT!" Rejan shouted to his wingman before they both collided.

The Simulator screen went blank. Rejan unbuckled from his seat and pulled himself out.

***

"Well, that really sucked." Rage leader said to the two as they climbed out of their simulator. " What were you trying to accomplish by flying into each other?"

"Well, we had to get through the crevice, and we both did it at the same time." Rejan felt his temper starting to rise. "We did the best we could, I'd like..." 

"Silence! You don't back talk to a superior officer. You are confined to your quarters until 1200 hours tomorrow. Understood?" Rage Leader bellowed at him.

"Yes. Sir." Rejan said, throwing a salute.

***

The week went by even slower after that. Rejan now got the hardest missions now and barely completed them. His leave was looking more and more wonderful. Rejan pulled himself out of one of the simulators. He didn't seem to have any energy left. The last simulation was on the next raid. Five squadrons of X-Wings came in and blew the TIEs apart. He and the rest of the squadron had been working on it for the past couple of days and they hadn't gotten very far.

Rage Lead called them into a briefing room two days later. 

"Rages, we are now going to have our first live fire mission. We will be heading out on the Bastion tomorrow at 1430. We will be in charge of bombing the main facility, so we will be in Bombers tomorrow. For today, we will be brushing up our skills in the Bomber, and get ready for tomorrow." He looked over the pilots. " This will be a difficult mission. It is also top secret. From now, until after you have been de-briefed, no one is to send out any transmissions, or talk to any one about it. We will meet at the simulator room at 0950. Dismissed." 

*** 

"All units, prepare for launch." The Control's voice was im-personal, as Rejan had ever heard it. Sitting in a TIE Bomber, he was ready to go. Abruptly, the order came. "All fighters launch. All Bombers, Launch." Control said. 

The TIE fighters swarmed out of the Bastion like Tatooine sand bees after their next was disturbed. From the Rebel base, X-Wings, B-Wings, A-Wings, Y-Wings, Headhunters and gunships poured out. Rejan's hands tightened their grip of the control yoke. The Victory ship, The Protector let it's ships go, making a sea of the fighters. The turbolasers from both the ships opened up, raining down bolts of energy on the Rebel fighters. 

"Rage Squadron, follow the Fire Squadron down, and then execute the bombing runs." Rage leader's voice came over the comm channel. "Fire Squadron, Storm Squadron and Shock Squadrons, protect us and engage any fighters that come our way." 

The Bombers and Fighters screamed down to the base. 

"Rage Squadron, start your bombing, now!" 

Rejan and the other Bombers let lose their payload of bombs that they were carrying. Explosion after explosion ripped the base apart, flinging debris everywhere. Rejan saw on his primary scope that three X-Wings were making their way towards him, Gronj and Krys. They all settled on Gronj's aft. 

"Five! Break off the run!"

Gronj Started to pull out but a proton torpedo caught him in between the cockpit and bomb section. 

"I'm hitttttt..." He screamed and then, static. 

Rejan looked out the view port and saw the expanding fireball that was all that was left of Gronj. He looked away and shot out from the bombing run. Two more X-Wings followed him out. He tipped the bomber up on its starboard wing and broke right. Laser blasts ripped by were he was. 

"Rage 6 here. I could use some back up." He broke left and down. Then, pulling back on the control yoke, he lifted the fighter up and back behind the two other X-Wings. Firing the lasers, he blasted the shields. Then, he got through and blasted one of them. Two TIEs came in after him.

"Covering you Rage 6." One of them said. They set upon the remaining X-Wing and destroyed it.

* * * 

If that was an omen, than it was of the coming battle. Rebel re-enforcements came in the form of three Mon Calamari cruisers, five Corellian corvettes, and seven gunships. They came down on the Protector with relish and tore it apart. Then they came at the Bastion, two coming in from the top and the others coming in from below. Rejan's mouth went dry as wave after wave of Rebel fighters came at them. The Bastion fired back, but it was out numbered. 

"All fighters, this is your first and last call. Return to the Bastion. Repeat: Return to the Bastion. We're done here. Rage Squadron and Storm squadrons had relatively low loses, but Shock Squadron was devastated and Fire Squadron had only two ships left. They returned to the Bastion and disappeared into hyperspace. 

* * *

Rejan slumped down on one of the chairs in the pilot ready room. The battle was hard all right, and he was exhausted. The door slid open and Krys walked in. "Are you all right?" he asked. 

"Yeah, I think so. The way those rebels came at us, they must have known we were coming." Rejan said, thinking of how the larger ships came in so precisely and know where to fire. "Next time we will win. They cannot beat us."

Krys thought for a minute. "I hope you're right."

Rejan sighed. "I hope so too."

***

Rejan sped out of the personal vehicle hanger. He checked his chrono. He was almost late. Corra would NOT be happy with him this time. He brought up the directory for food and entertainment up of the dashboard data pad.

***

His date with Corra went as well as usual, they went out to dinner, caught a holo film and relaxed. The next day Rejan went back to base to transfer to the Executor. 

***

If they thought that the Bastion was huge, the Executor was a giant. Darth Vader's flagship loomed before them like a black knife ready to stab the Rebellion. The Rages were on board the Titan, an Imperial Mark II Star Destroyer. They could see the Executor from the Titan, and it looked enormous, even from ten kilometers away.

"Can you imagine working on that?" Krys said in awe over the comm, "It's the most important ship it the Imperial fleet!"

They were heading to Endor, a large gas planet with many moons. They were escorting the Executor with the Bastion, Vengeance, Sith, and the Blood Hand. They still had four more jumps to go and after the next jump, the Rage Squadron would transfer to the Executor. They left hyperspace and prepared for another jump. Since Endor had so many gravity masses around it, jumps to it were difficult. It was also surrounded by a dense star cluster, which left only two routes open. The Fleet was to only use one of these routes, but the other was to be left opened. Most of the pilots wondered about this, but the orders came from the Emperor himself. He must have a good reason for this, Rejan thought to him self. But, it makes no sense whatsoever.

The Rages were in their new Interceptors, ready to leave the ship to go to the Executor when they left hyperspace. 

Suddenly, the lines that the stars made while at lightspeed disappeared and asteroids started to shoot past. 

"All squadrons transferring to the Executor, Launch!" Control said over the comm. 

"Rage squadron, Launch!" Rage leader shouted. "Tri-point parade formation. Execute!" 

The Rages arranged them selves into flights and formed into a triangle with one flight in the lead and two behind them. They flew towards the massive Super-class Star Destroyer. 

"Look at the size of that thing!" Sio, Rage twelve gasped in amazement. 

"Cut the chatter, Rage Twelve!" Rage leader snapped. "Executor Control, this is Rage Squadron, we are requesting a landing beacon."

"Copy that Rage lead. We are transmitting that to you now." 

"Copy."

They flew towards the landing bay and disappeared in side.

***

"This is so exciting!" Krys said to Rejan after they had been assigned to their bunks and living area. "This ship is like a small city. It's just so big!"

"Yeah, I kind of got that feeling wend we first came onboard." Rejan replied. His datapad pinged and he glanced down at it. "Hey, it looks like you and me have to escort a Lambda-Class shuttle to some space station. Lets go."

***

"Rage 6 to Shuttle Silverflight, we have launch. Following you in at course 12 alpha mark 45 by 6."

"Copy Rage 6. Follow use in on the EXACT course." 

"I copy."

Before them, laid the Death Star. As they came around the side of the Executor, it came into view. Rejan heard Krys gasp.

"Look at THAT! That, That thing!" He sputtered.

"Cut the Chatter Rage 7." Rejan said to his wing mate. "Just follow the shuttle."

The shuttle soared gracefully over to the Death Star and landed into one of the docking bays. Rejan and Krys followed, landing up on one of the TIE racks that was on the ceiling. They got out of their ships and walked over the stairs that lead to the pilot ready room that was a floor above the landing area. Krys looked over the side. 

"Rejan, quick, look!" He said to Rejan. The helmet that all the TIE pilots wore hid his expression, but his voice sounded very. "Look who we escorted!"

"Who?" Rejan asked. He peered over the railing. Then he say the tall dark figure below. He felt his jaw drop several centimeters. "Is that DARTH VADER?" He asked in disbelief. He and Krys, two TIE pilots, has the honor escorting the most known person in the Empire himself? It was a chance that most TIE pilots would die for.

They stood, staring as Darth Vader walked out of the docking bay.

***

"And he just stared him down just like that, I feel sorry for the Moff." Rejan and Krys recited the story of how they escorted Darth Vader around and saw him in the docking bay. The other pilots were stunned to hear that Darth Vader was here. 

BEEP BEEP. Rejan's comlink beeped

"Yes?" He asked the person on the other side of the comm. 

"This is Rage leader. We are having a briefing in 10 minutes at section 4, level 78 sub-level 9, floor 56, briefing room 14. Over."

"I copy. Krys and I are on our way. Out." He pocketed the comlink and pulled out his datapad. "Let's see, Section 4, level 78 sub-level 9..."

***

"We have had word that the Rebels are massing near Sullust, but a majority of the fleet is here, or within three sectors of the galaxy. You are going to be put on to picket duty for the time being, but you will be put on to the escort duty too." Targon finished his talk. If most of the pilots had been surprised to see him but kept it from showing. The pilots had a high level of standards that they had to adjust to. They were on the Death Star after all. "Any questions?"

Rejan raised his hand " Yes sir, is there any chance that we could be under attack by the Rebellion?" 

Targon stared at him. "There IS a small chance that that could happen, but the Rebels have no idea that this battle station exists, here at Endor. But yes there is a slight, and I say a slight chance. I wouldn't worry about it. Any more questions? No? Report to the pilot ready room 345345 at 1900 hours tomorrow. Dismissed." 

***

"Rage Squadron, prepare to launch." Control, as usual, sounded like a dull droid whose voice was lacking any treble. "Patrol on heading 54 mark 23. Report any abnormalities." 

"As ordered. Executing now." Rejan swung his Interceptor to the assigned heading with the rest of the squadron and headed out. There was many freighters and haulers in the area, many bringing in supplies and people into work at the Death Star. 

"Seven, cover me. We're going to challenge that freighter over there. Heading 45 by 65 mark 23." Rejan called over to his wingman. 

"Copy six. Coming about."

The freighter in question was a Kuat Drive Yards 5434 bulk freighter. It was a large boxy freighter with the engines on the sides on the sides and with a turbolaser turret on the top. The hold was opened to the vacuum of space. Rejan knew that these freighters were extremely tough and could take a beating. Pirate fleets used them as fighter carriers or gunships. 

"Freighter 3523, you are to shut down your engines and prepare for a boarding party." Rejan said to the freighter. "Failure to do so will result in your destruction."

"We copy TIE patrol. Standing by." The response came back.

Krys opened a line to Rejan. "Why did you stop them? They've done nothing wrong." 

"Wrong seven. Look at the symbol right behind the bridge." 

Painted behind the bridge was what looked like a Rebellion symbol. A shuttle came out and boarded the freighter. Rejan flew over the bridge to take a good look and the symbol. It wasn't a Rebel symbol, but a large Kuat Drive Yard's Symbol. 

"Boarding team, finish up your search. They check out." Rejan called to the shuttle. "It was a visual error."

"We copy. Nothing was found."

Control came on. "Keep sharp Rages, we have a new heading for you to patrol. 67 by 20 mark 35."

"We copy, Control." Rage leader said. 

The assigned heading was around the far side of the moon. As they came around, they spotted the Star Destroyers massed around the back side of the moon. They were all facing the sides of the moon, ready to come around the moon at a minute's notice.

After ten minutes, they received orders to come back and patrol a new area. As they came about, Rejan caught the glimpse of a blur on his sensors and then Rebel fighters came out of hyperspace, followed by the rest of the fleet.

"Control, we have multiple Rebel fighters coming out of hyperspace." Rejan stared at the sensor board. The Rages were out side of the shielding, with the Star Destroyer, although they were on the other side of the moon. "Permission to engage?" 

"Denied, Rage Leader, wait for the Destroyers to come around." The Star Destroyers came around the moon just then, coming around in a pincher movement to trap the rebel fighters. 

"All fighters, ENGAGE!" Control shouted. 

"All squadrons check in." The Executor controller said.

"Rage Squadron, here"

"Storm Squadron here"

"Fire Squadron here"

"Sith Squadron here"

"Ice Squadron here"

"Elite Squadron here"

More and more squadrons called in. Rejan's main tactical board lit up with contacts as the Rebel fighters came at them. The commander of the fleet must have realized that the shield was still up and that it was a trap. X-wings, Y-wings, A-wings, B-wings, Captured TIEs, Blastboats, headhunters and every type of ship imaginable flew past him. He fired his lasers again and again, scoring minor hits as he shot past. 

"7, follow me in. I'm heading for that cruiser over there." He called out to Krys. "8, cover him."

"I copy 7." They both said and roared in. 

Two ships, an X-wing and a YT-1300 followed them in. That YT looks familiar. Rejan thought to him self. Where have I seen it? 

The YT came in on Rage 8 and proceeded to blow him up. 

Sith! Lost 8. "7, watch yourself. You lost your backup."

"I noticed that." Static crept into the transmission. "Let's get back to the main body."

Rejan came around and headed for a light cruiser that was being pounded by a Mon Calamari gunship. "Seven, I have lead."

"Copy." They came in at the gunship firing. Rejan brought up the statistics on the Mon Cal ship. 

"Seven, there is a weak spot on the shields, right behind that port laser turret. If you can draw off their fire, I cam get in to blast it."

"I copy. But hold on for a minute. There are some X-Wings coming in . Help is coming too."

"All right, instruct the other TIEs to draw them off." 

With out waiting for a response, he came in at the gunship, aiming for the weak point. He fired and hit the shields. They held, but only for a minute. Sparking, the laser turret swiveled around to fire on him, but Rejan fired first. The turret exploded in a large fire ball. Rejan blew through it and came out on the other side. Then, he and Krys came around and pelted the shieldless ship with multiple hits.

Then the gunship went dark and the ship stopped firing. 

"Seven, break off the attack! It's going to blow!" he shouted and light poured out of the view ports and seams appeared on the sides. They flew off to rejoin the rest of the Rage Squadron.

***

"Rage squadron and Storm squadron the shields are down. We have Rebels making runs into the main reactor shaft. Follow and destroy them." Control said over the comm. "We cannot let them get to the reactor."

"As ordered." Rejan said. "5,7,9 and 10 on me." Rejan said as his fighter flew through supports, towers, comm antenna, turbo lasers and friendly fire, chasing after the YT-1300 and the X-wings and A-wings that were making the run. The interior of the reactor shaft was covered with pipes, fuel lines and power cables and construction platforms. The fighters weaved in and out after the fighters. Rejan tipped the interceptor on to it's side and let loose a quad burst. The fighter ahead of him exploded, leaving five more fighters to destroy and one Freighter. He got a target lock on one of the X-wings fired again, but this time, the shields held, leaving only scorch marks on the fighter. He fired again, dissipating the shields and destroying the fighter. One of the Storm TIE fighters hit the side of one of the pipes and bounced around a bit before blowing up. 

Suddenly, the two A-Wings veered down a side passage.

"7, on me, follow them! 5 and 10, follow the others." He flew down the side shaft, the A-Wings just ahead. 

Krys frowned at the A-wing on his targeting board. "Come on, lock up!" It did and he fired. "Yahoo! Got him. This next one is good. Rejan, He flies like a TIE pilot."

They roared out of the reactor shaft and took off after the fighter.

***

Tagas Mohte, Rage 10, raced after the X-wing and YT-1300. She tipped he interceptor up onto its port foil and maneuvered through a narrow opening. She fired again and again after the two ships and scored several hits- Only to be turned back by their shields. They must have all shields aft. She thought as they flew into a particularly hazardous area. She was right. The pilot of the YT came to close to the bottom of one of the huge pipes that layered the shaft. The sensor dish came off, flying back and hitting Storm 4. Then they shot into the reactor. It was a huge open area with one large pillar in the center with small towers around it. The two ships flew towards it, firing Concussion missiles. NO! This cannot happen! She fired at the missiles. But missed. They soared in at the towers and exploded into a golden fireball. The two ships were heading out. The reactor is blowing up. I have to punish them, and escape. She jammed the throttle up and took off after the YT and X-Wing at full speed. They were on their way out now. She flew like she had never flown before, weaving in and out, barely avoiding the pipes and cables.

The explosion could up with her and she felt heat. Then, blackness.

***

Rejan and Krys followed the remaining A-wing out of the Death Star. The pilot was flying in and out of the construction platforms that littered the surface. They flew under a crane when Rejan heard Krys yell out over the comm.

"What happened?" He asked, looking for his wing man. 

"I clipped that crane arm. S-panels 1 and two are malfunctioning and 3 is failing. I can hold it, but not for long."

Okay, lets head over to the..." He glanced at his sensors for the nearest Star Destroyer. "... The Titan. They should have a re-placement fighter. I need fuel too." 

"I copy. Coming around."

Rejan got a look at Krys's fighter. Solar Panels 1 and 2 were all torn up and 3 were pretty mangled. It was a wonder he could fly at all. 

"Go easy 7, I'll cover you." Rejan enhanced his sensors to cover their back. "Star Destroyer Titan, this is Rage 6 and Rage 7. 7 has some battle damage and we both need to re-fuel. Permission to come aboard?" Rejan called over the comm. 

"Permission granted, Rage 6. We have the other members of the Rage squadron aboard too. Land in the TIE re-fueling bay. Out."

The two flew into the bay and settled into the claws that held the TIEs in place above the bay. 

***

Rejan and Krys made their way to the pilot's ready-room when the ship jolted. The ship made it's way to hyperspace. 

"What the bloody Sith?" Krys asked. 

"We just made the jump to light speed. That's not a good sign. Lets get a computer console." They came into the pilot's lounge at a run and slipped into a computer slot. "Let's see. Oh no."

"What?" Krys leaded over the back of the chair to peer over Rejan's head. "What?" 

"The Death Star was destroyed. We lost." 

"We lost? The Empire? I don't believe it." The intercom came on then. "All personnel on board the Titan. This is the Captain speaking. The Death Star has been destroyed and the Emperor and Darth Vader killed aboard it. All ships have been ordered to retreat. I would like to congratulate everyone who participated, and that we must redouble our efforts to regain what we have lost. It is a grave loss, but not a fatal one. We are heading for the planet Naboo."

***

"Contact, Contact, we have two Star Destroyers coming out of hyperspace." The young sensors tech called out to Captain Takbar, the Mon Calamarian captain in charge of the Mon Calamarian light cruiser, Soft Wake. The Soft Wake was in charge of protecting the planet Naboo, a rebel-held planet. The Soft Wake had 16 turbolasers, 12 ion cannons and two squadrons of X-Wing fighters. There were 5 other rebel ships protecting the planet Naboo, 2 Corellian Cruisers, one Victory class Star Destroyer, one modified bulk freighter and one Mon Calamarian gun ship. 

"Prepare to Engage!" Takbar bellowed to the weapons tech. "Send out a call for re-enforcements. Fight well people, and we'll live to see these Imperial scum destroyed"

***

"Rage flight, launch." Following the Battle of Endor, the Rage flight had lost so many pilots, that they were now the Rage Flight, until they get more pilots trained. Rejan shot out of the landing bay and circled out to the rebel defense force. Rebel fighters soared out from the fleet and started to fire at the TIE fighters that came out of the two star destroyers. The other Star Destroyer, the Fighting Spirit, Deployed their fighters as well and the combined firepower matched the rebels 1 to 1. 

"Rage flight on me." Rage leader was one of the surviving Rages and retained control of the flight. They flew in at one of the Corellian Blockade Runners, which was firing on the Titan. They came in firing, as the ship started to fire on them. Rejan hauled back on the control yoke, pulling up and over the sudden rain of blasts. He then came down, right in front of the turbolaser turrets. Thinking quickly, he activated the repulsorlifts and hovered right under the guns. Then, protected by the gun itself, he fired again and again, bringing down the shields and then destroying the lasers.

"Good work Rage 6!" Rage leaded called to him. "Watch your back, X-Wings coming in behind you!" 

"I copy." Rejan replied. He jammed the throttle up and shot out of the engagement zone with two X-Wings on his tail. Rejan juked left and right, but the pilot of the X-Wing was very good. He stayed with the young TIE pilot through every move that Rejan tried doing. Suddenly, the Target Lock Warning System started shrieking. The pilot had him in a target lock and fired a proton torpedo. Rejan broke left right as the missile exploded behind him, and the explosion overtook Rejan as he frantically tried to escape.

***

Explosions ripped through the Soft Wake. The Titan had taken a bead on the Mon Cal ship and was shooting proton torpedoes at it. Takbar pulled him self off the floor were he had fallen after the last barrage had rocked the ship. "How badly are we hurt?" He asked the ship operations officer.

"We were hit with at least ten torpedoes, at last count. We lost the port dorsal shields but they are coming back up. We also lost turbolasers five and eight. And ion cannons six and twelve" The officer replied. "We cannot hold up like this for much longer." 

"Do what you can. Guns! Open fire on that Star Destroyer. I want to give that captain a nose bleed." Takbar shouted to the fire control. 

***

Rejan flew out of the explosion, as if the expanding ball of gasses had spit him out of its dangerous center. His fighter was almost unharmed, considering the fact that the fireball has almost surrounded him, were it would destroy his fighter. He glanced at his primary board, seeing were his fighter was in relationship to the rest of his flight and then took off after them. He came into their comm range to hear Rage leader giving orders to the rest of his squadron.

"Come around on course 45 mark 37 by 345." Their target was the Soft Wake. They came in at the ship, dodging the ion and turbolaser shots and fired as they came in range. Two X-wings came in at the TIEs. They also dodged the blast, coming in hard and fast. The Soft Wake stopped firing their turbolasers and redoubled their efforts with the ion cannons. Rejan and the rest of the Rage flight swerved in and out of the bolts, trying to knock out as many guns as possible. Then, Rejan went right when he should have gone left. A bolt from one of the remaining ion cannons hit his small starfighter head on. The controls went dark and he fell, towards the planet of Naboo.

***

Wrestling with the TIE fighter's controls, Rejan tried to maneuver the fighter to a safer landing. There were many forests on the planet, with little in the way of places to land. Wait! There! He thought as a small opening appeared in the thick canopy of trees. He steered to the opening and the remaining controls he did have died. He fell, into the trees and screamed in shock at the trees shooting by. Then, Splash! The TIE's wing pylons flew off from the shock of hitting the water. It's speed unabated, the pilot pod continued to move at a high speed. The pod skipped off the water and continued to bounce off of the surface until the pod hit a tree that was leaning over the water. The pod bounced off of that and landed into the center of the long lake and began to sink.

***

Rejan pushed and the top of the hatch. It refused to budge because of the water pressure holding it in place. He hit a button and two explosive charges blew the hatch off of the TIE. As water began to pour in to the fighter, he grabbed the survival pack and an air tank from beneath the seat and swam out into the dark waters. He was a good swimmer, and the years of physical training at the Academy had honed those skills. Hitting the environment breather option on the pilots breastplate, he got some fresh air moving through the helmet. The air would only last for a couple of hours, and the survival kit would only last for a couple of days. The pod had carried him down far beneath the surface of the lake, and the pressure was starting to make him feel light headed. He swam up towards the surface. 

He was about fifteen meters from the surface when a strong current caught him and swept him into a dark cave in the side of the lake. 

***

The battle above the planet Naboo was not faring well for the Imperial ships. Captain Harshak paced on the bridge, waiting for the Imperial reinforcements to arrive. The Fighting Spirit had been destroyed by the Soft Wake and the Titan was severely damaged.

"Prepare to retreat." Harshak called to the bridge crew. "Recall all Starfighters. Navigation set a course for Blibringi. We're leaving." 

The bridge crew fell silent and then started to comply with the Captain's orders.

***

Rejan struggled against the current that swept him down and through the cave. He hit one of the sides, rebounded, and then hit another wall. The water went faster and the cave grew wider. If not for his helmet, Rejan would have had a crushed skull. Then the roaring of the water got louder. Rejan hit a rock and went flying. Then he landed on another rock, one that was above the water and grabbing for a hand hold, got one and stayed on. The source of the roaring, was ten meters away from him, an opening in the rock, over looking more forest. Rejan sat up and started to plan for his escape. There was no way back, and there was the waterfall in front of him. Not that I really want to do either. He thought to him self. The survival kit was still strapped to his back, and the air tank was still in place. In the survival kit, there was a small life raft that would inflate with the air tank. H pulled it out, and hooked the tank up to it. Then he hit the release button to start filling the raft. The tank gave a whine, and then a small tone sounded from it. _No air_? He thought. But that was full in the ship. Then, realization came to him, and he flipped the tank over. There, on the bottom of the tank, was a small hole with a long crack shooting up one side. Sith Spawn! With out the tank, the raft would not fill, and then there would be no way out. I'll just have to do this the hard way.

Rejan strapped every thing back on and then jumped into the river. The current caught him and threw him over the waterfall. Then he fell. And then, darkness overtook him.

***

The Titan came out of hyperspace at Blibringi. The ship had barely made the jump to hyperspace and was in need of repair. There were only five TIE squadrons left after the battle, Two of the Rage pilots, Krys and Leader, had survived. They had both been damaged and were on the Titan when it went into hyperspace. They had both spent the journey in bacta tanks and were healed well. Krys had not recovered from the loss of his best friend and wingman, Rejan, who had been shot down. After he had seen Rejan's damaged fighter fall towards the planet, he went on a suicide run against the Soft Wake. He was hit by an ion cannon and was brought aboard the Titan. He walked out of the pilot's ready room and went to the dorm that the Rage flight had occupied and fell fast asleep.

***

Rejan awoke to find himself at the side of a bend in the river that the waterfall fell into. He had lost the broken air tank and the breathing hose that attached it to his helmet. The water was fairly cold and it woke him up fairly quickly. He stood up, shaking his head. _That's the last time I'm taking the express._ He thought, as he pulled him self up the bank. 

Finding a dry spot on the bank, he sat down and emptied the survival pack. _Rations, credits, datapad, glow rod, blaster, power packs, canteen and a comlink. Not much to live on. _He thought as he looked over the remaining gear. He had been trained to survive with much less, but he didn't want to try it again. Remembering some datapad tricks he learned, he hooked up the datapad to the comlink. Then, he used a frequency that would allow him to contact one of the many satellites that orbited Naboo. Then, he found his location and the nearest city, Theed. Walking, it would take a day. There he could find a ship, _And a way to rejoin my squadron and the Empire._ Motivated, he found the shortest route and started walking.

***

Nine hours later, Rejan stumbled into the out skirts of Theed. Contacting the satellite again, he brought up a thermal image of the city, hoping to find a dataport that he could slice into. Finding one, he located a city directory and looked for a place were he could find a ship dealer. _There, the Dour Dewback, a small cantina on the other side of the city._ In his Imperial training, he had been taught to use the people in the under-table businesses to get what they needed. Now was the time to do that. Stripping out of the flight suit and helmet, Rejan started into the city.

There were many people about, Humans and Gungans mostly, but a scattering of Rodians, Biths, Twi'leks, Duros and Ryns. He had stumbled into a market place. Digging out a couple of credits, he bought a small piece of fruit to aleive the hunger that he felt somewhat. Looking around, he saw food dealers, trinket stands, information booths, musicians, performers and just about every thing imaginable.

"You need help perhaps?" Said a voice from behind him. 

Rejan spun around, his hand going for the blaster hidden in his jumpsuit. Standing before him was a male Ryn. Covered with gray down, the creature sported a chitonous beak, a slender tail and bright clothing. "Maybe, if you wouldn't go around giving every one a heart attack!" 

The Ryn laughed, a high pitched noise that came through his beak. "All right, sorry. Does that make you feel better?" 

Rejan scowled at the Ryn. "Yeah, right, now what do you want?" He demanded. 

"You looked like you needed help finding something. I thought that you may need help finding it." The Ryn replied. "My name is Jarkar Trandar. Some call me Jak of all Trades. I can get you almost any thing, for a little price."

Rejan's interest was peaked. _What luck! If he can get me a ship and TIE, this would be great! _He thought quickly. "I do need something, rather badly. A small freighter and a TIE fighter." 

Jarkar frowned. "A TIE fighter? Are you a pilot?" 

"Yes. I was piloted a freighter here and need a ship of my own. I'm planning to start my own shipping business."

"Really? There have been no freighters docking here for the past week."

"So I need to get off this planet and go else where."

"Hmm. Let's go into the Dour Dewback, a eatery near hereto talk in say, two hours, I can find some things in that amount of time."

"Okay, Dour Dewback in two hours."

***

"My name is Rejan Lonar, by the way." Rejan said to Jarkar as they sat down at a table in the cantina two hours after they met.

"Yes, and you are looking for a ship. I think I can get you one." Jarkar replied. "Would a YT-1600 do? It is a fairly new ship, right out of the Corellian shipyards. It was it's own docking bay, 'freasher station, comm center, food processors, an astromech droid, two quad guns and a missile launcher. It has a class 1 hyperdrive and top of the line sublights. The only TIE fighter that I could find was a TIE interceptor, equipped with shields. The docking bay of the YT can be fitted with landing claws for it to land."

This was too good to be true! But Rejan was suspicious. "What's the catch?" He asked. It was too good to be true. 

"I was thinking that, since us Ryn are generally hated, I was wondering if you would transport my clan to Garqi. And there is a small price to cover the rest."

"Which is?"

Jarkar named a figure. 

"Too high. 17,000 credits."

"Twenty."

"Still to high. Nineteen"

"Eighteen."

"Done."

Jarkar wagged his tail a little. "Good!" He handed Rejan a datacard. "This is the information on your ship. We will arrive there in three hours." 

"Okay, But let me find some other things that I will need." 

"What do you need?"

"I just need to buy some rations and a speeder bike."

"My clan owns both things. We will bring them along."

"Good. I will see you later."

***

Rejan rushed out to the gear that he left behind on the out skirts of the city. Throwing it into a bag that he bought and stuffed every thing in. Then, he went into the city's ship port and found his new ship. It was large, larger than the YT-13 or YT14 hundreds. The cockpit jutted out from the main body and was a little more angular that the other YT models. The cargo bay/docking bay was on the belly of the ship. The quad guns were farther back than the other YT models. Entering a code into the keypad, the boarding ramp came down. The entrance opened into the cargo bay. Looking around the cavernous bay, he noticed that the ship had two decks, the top deck opened up to the bay. Rejan walked into the lower deck to find the engine, shields, power core, repulsor and sensors rooms. There was also a couple of crew rooms and an air lock. Inside the airlock ready room, there was two pressure suits. 

Going up stairs, Rejan found the cooker units, fresher, another crew room, the cockpit and a relaxation area. He walked into the cockpit and looked over the sensor ranges, comm ranges, speed and life-support.

"Pardon me, but are you Master Rejan?" Rejan whirled around, blaster in hand to find a gray and black droid. It looked like a mix of a protocol droid and a worker droid. "I am SP-87."

Rejan looked the droid over. "Are you a Ship Support Droid?"

"Oh yes master Rejan. I am also a translator, due to some modifications that I made to myself. I am fluent in over one million forms of communications, and I can do many other things, including repair, piloting, cleaning and a guard for the ship. R2-D8B3 here is your astromech droid, who handles the most of the repair work and navigation." The gray droid said, gesturing to the green and white R2 unit that came in after him. "I will respond to Pate and R2-D8B3 will respond to Volt. Welcome aboard."

Rejan frowned. "What's this ship's name? It was never mentioned."

"The ship does not have a name. It is fairly new and you are the first owner." Pate replied. "I can make some.."

"No, No, I will come up with a name on my own, thank you very much."

"Oh you are most welcome"

Rejan just rolled his eyes.

***

BEEP BEEP. Rejan's comlink beeped. Pulling it out of the pocket it was in, he thumbed it on. "Yes?"

"This is Jarkar. We have arrived with the things that you wanted. Can you lower the boarding ramp so we can come in?" The Ryn's voice came over the comlink. 

"Come right ahead. You can situate your self in the rooms off the cargo bay." he hit the lower ramp' button and he could hear the ramp whine and with a dull THUMP!, It hit the ground. Then came the sounds of many bodies walking in. Jarkar appeared in the cockpit door. 

"We're all aboard. There are thirteen of us in all."

"Good. We'll leave in 30 minutes. Get every one strapped in."

***

"Excuse me Master Rejan, but if you don't mind my asking, but have you chosen a name for the ship yet?" Pate was asking Rejan. They were both in the lounge. Rejan was playing one of the younger Ryn, Droma, at a game of Dejarik. Droma, who was only ten, was beating Rejan again. 

"Yes. I have two ideas. One, the Starlight Runner, and Two, Dark Shadow. What do you think?" 

"Starlight Runner seems very pleasant indeed. I like that one." The droid said. Jarkar was cooking nerf stakes for every one and the other Ryns were helping with the other things.

"I win!" Droma squealed, as he destroyed Rejan's last player. 

He got up and strode into his room. He hooked his datapad up to the wall unit and started to download the information that he had pulled off of it. The satellite he pulled it from also kept track of departing ships. He scanned for the information on large ships. The Titan was not on it. He banged his hand off the wall. _Time for plan B._ He thought as he hit the intercom switch.

"Jarkar? Meet me in the cockpit." He got up and went to the cockpit. 

***

"Intelligence on Star Destroyers? I can certainly try, IF you will tell me your story and why you want to know." 

Rejan sat down on the pilot's chair. "I.. I really can't. I can tell you that I was shot down. I have to re-join my squadron."

"But why? The Empire has been overthrown."

"It can never be over thrown!" Rejan was quickly losing his temper. "How dare you make such a comment!?"

Jarkar just stared at him. "What makes you think that the Empire is good? Do you have any idea how many lives the Empire destroyed? How many people it killed? Now if I'm right, you're an Imperial TIE pilot. And that you were shot down in the last battle." He stared Rejan full in the face. "If you would like, I would point out the evils that the Empire has done."

Rejan snapped. He lunged at the Ryn, who jumped over him with ease. "TAKE IT BACK!" Rejan bellowed as he spun around. "THE EMPIRE IS THE ONLY LEGITIMENT GOVERNMENT IN THE GALAXY!" He pulled out his blaster. Jarkar spun around, and kicked the blaster out of Rejan's hands. "Listen to me. I am only telling the truth." Rejan charged at him. Jarkar dodged him and hit him in the back of the neck. Rejan crumpled to the floor.

***

Rejan awoke slowly. He was lying on his bunk in his cabin. Jarkar was bending over him, when he saw that he was awake. "You're awake! How do you feel?" Jarkar asked when Rejan opened his eyes. "Terrible. Can I have something to drink?" 

In response, Jarkar gave him a glass of water. Rejan gulped it down. "How long was I out?" He asked. 

"An hour."

Then Rejan remembered what had happened. He shot up and started to lunge for Jarkar. Hands pinned him down and another Ryn peered down at him.

"Don't make us hurt you. We are only trying to help." She snarled at him. "Cooperate." 

Sensing defeat, Rejan slumped down on the bed.

Jarkar came forward, a datapad in hand. "Here, watch this." He said, pointing to the screen. See how the Empire is.

The screen showed Storm Troopers. They were on a desert planet, searching for something. They arrived at a small hut. After searching it, they killed the owners, who had protested. As Rejan watched, he saw the Death Star destroy Alderaan, and TIE fighters destroying a settlement. He tried to look away, but the female Ryn twisted his head back to where he was watching the screen. He saw a new planet and then recognized is as Coruscant. He saw the troopers killing people in the streets, and more TIE fighters destroying buildings.

"This is what the Empire is. This is what they did." Jarkar said. "The Empire is all about greed and suffering. Nothing more. Now thing about it." And he and the female left the room.

***

For the rest of the day, and into the night, Rejan thought about what he had seen. The images burned into him. He could see the people dying, and he saw how evil the Empire was. The Ryn had broken the brain washing that all of the Imperial troopers got.

Jarkar strode into the room. "Good morning. How are you doing?" he asked. 

"I'll join you."

The Ryn looked puzzled. "Excuse me?"

"Aren't you part of the Rebellion? If you are, I'm in."

"You will?" The Ryn was excited now. "As a matter of fact, we are NOT members the Rebellion. BUT, we do have some contacts that we can go through."

"Good. I'll get ready."

***

The Starlight Runner came out of hyperspace over Garqi. The planet was a motley red and purple colored planet, and was mostly covered by agricultural farms that provided food for many Core planets, including Coruscant and Corellia. Rejan sat in the cockpit, with Pate as his co-pilot and Volt as his navigator. Rejan had modified the astromech so that it spoke basic and not beeps and whistles. "So that's Garqi." A voice from the door said. Rejan spun around to find Jarkar standing there. "You know, you should stop doing that. You'll get your head blown off one of these days.""Sorry, should I put a couple of bells on by cap so that you can hear me better?"

"It might."

Pate, oblivious to the argument, called in starport control and got them to land. They landed in a small port, in the main city of Garqi. They disembarked and went to customs. 

"Where are you guys going from here?" Rejan asked Jarkar.

"The others are heading off for the Corporate sector. I, however will be heading off with you." The Ryn replied.

"What?! No, impossible." Rejan said in shock.

"Nothing is impossible. You want to join the Rebellion. I have contacts. You don't. Therefore, I am going with you." Jarkar shot back. "Like it of not, I'm your new partner."

Rejan groaned. "Some how, I knew you would say that."

***

Back in the Runner, Rejan and Jarkar sat down in the lounge to talk about what they would do next. 

"We will have to go to a small out of-the-way planet called Hyrpor 9. My rebel contact is stationed there. We will see what we can do from there."

"Sith. That's way out in the outer rim. It'll take days to reach it."

"Yep. But I know a route that will take us there in about three day's time. It is a tricky route, but I have used it before to reach other planets in the outer rim."

"Okay bonehead, but what about fuel? We'll have to stop somewhere. And most of the planets in between here and there are imperial planets."

"That's no problem. There is a small refueling station here. In the Yag-Dul system. We can stop there." Jarkar said, pointing at a star map.

"Okay. Now.."

"Food is covered. Water is covered. Any thing else?"

Rejan sighed. "Nope. Let's go."

***

"Hey! Jarkar! We're here!" Rejan shouted to his new partner as they approached the green and blue planet called Hyrpor 9. There was a fair amount of traffic and he wanted a copilot to help him navigate while the droids were working on the TIE, adding better shields and some armor. 

"I'm here, I'm here." Jarkar said as he came into the cockpit. He looked at the planet. "Okay, first, I have to give them a code that will allow my contact know that we are here." He looked at Rejan. "They will probably start you off, running cargo for them." He went over to the comm and inserted a datacard into the slot. Then, he pushed a couple of buttons and after a moment, a course setting came up. "Ah, good." He said, "Just follow the course and we're in the home free."

***

They landed in a small bay on the outskirts of the main city, Hyrpornach. The area was really a small base that the Rebels had set up. Rejan and Jarkar were lead to the base commander.

The commander was seated in a small room, one that over looked the plains to the east. As the two entered with their guards, he turned.

"Welcome to Reb-63-a4" he greeted them. "New recruits?" He asked the two people with Rejan and Jarkar. 

"Yes. One is a fighter pilot and the other is a general all around type of person." The woman on the left said. "They want to join." And with that, they left.

The commander turned his attention to Rejan and Jarkar. "So which is which?" He asked. "No, wait, let me guess. You," He said pointing to Rejan, "You have the look of a pilot. You flew TIEs?"

Rejan stiffened a little. "Yes," He admitted, "I was a TIE pilot."

"Well, don't worry to much about it, I was a TIE pilot too, and about 11 others here. You see, we have been looking for another TIE pilot so that we can form a new squadron of TIEs. I cannot fly with them, I have other duties here. Would you like to join this squadron?"

Rejan was dumbfounded. "What Me? But, but, I haven't even joined the Alliance yet." 

"Yes, but the Alliance is very short on pilots now. And fighters. That's why we have a TIE squadron. Providing that you join."

"I.. uh.. well sure." Rejan replied.

"You will have to go through a security check, and fill out the forms that you will need to join. It won't be easy at all, Rejan. Nothing ever is."

***

After passing the security checks and filling out the forms, Rejan was assigned a room in the base. It was very small, with only a bunk, desk and a light. The walls were unpainted metal bulkheads, leaving the room very dark. Jarkar was assigned a room down the hall. He had signed up too, as a pilot for some of the freighters. Rejan slumped down on his bed. He picked up his data pad and looked for something to do on the planet's network. _Holo vids, reader files, newsnets, base.. What the_. He opened the file called base. _Base security, routines, personnel, _His eyes widened as he saw a holo cam shot of the base he was in, the commander's office, the hangers and almost every where in the base. _The base's computer network was on here!_ He had to report it- fast. _An imperial probe droid could find this stuff faster than a gundark can kick a storm trooper_. He jumped out of bed and ran to the commander's office. 

He burst in, not bothering to knock and found the commander talking to another officer. 

"Lieutenant Lonar, do you have to go barging into every office that there is?" The commander asked him. 

"Sorry sir, but I just found a potential security leak." Rejan answered. 

"Really, how did you find it? Where is it?" The commander asked.

"I was looking for something to read or watch, so I put up the planet's network up on my datapad to look for things to do on the entertainment section. There is a section in it that has file and holo cam files in it. From this base." Rejan explained.

The two officers looked at each other. "Well then, thank you. Can you transfer the file to my datapad?" the commander asked.

"Sure. No problem. I will do it now."

***

BEEP BEEP. The man's comlink beeped loud in the silent night air. "Yes?" he said, speaking into it. 

"Some one at the base has discovered your outer link. They are tracing the file out put sections now, as we speak. Call them in. Code Red. Out."

***

"So you just found it there?" Jarkar asked Rejan the next day as they ate lunch in the mess area. 

"Yeah. I don't know if the file is just an accident or what, but, I just got here. Some Hutt will think that is was me that did it."

"You didn't did you?"

"What! Of course not. I have been here for two days, and in three areas of the base. I would have very little time to set that up. Besides, only some one with a higher rank would be able to get into some of those areas."

Jarkar chewed for a minute, then nodded. "Yes. Well, maybe it's just a mistake.

"I really hope so."

***

The next day, Rejan reported to the TIE hanger were he and the rest of the TIE squad were assigned. Walking into the hanger, he remembered the time when he and Krys had found the new Interceptors in the base. He wondered what had happened to Krys, but forced the thought away with his hatred for the Empire.

Above his head, twelve TIE interceptors were hanging in their brackets. He stared up at them longing to fly again. Then he noticed the bulky add-ons that were attached to the sides of the fighters. 

"They look nice don't they?" A voice said from behind him. He spun, to find a mechanic standing there. "We added shield generators and boosted the lasers a bit, and increased the speed slightly. They'll fly."

Rejan looked over the mechanic. He was fairly tall, with brown fur covering him. He wore a gray jumpsuit with the red Rebel Alliance symbol on it. His face contained a shortish muzzle, and his ears were slightly pointed. All in all, he looked like a Corellian Scav Dog that decided that life was better as a mechanic. The mechanic laughed, a harsh barking at Rejan's interest. "What? You haven't seen a Narvack before?" He said, "We are native to Hyrpor 8, but we all had to move when the moon started to slam into it. My name is Cark-Nah'gd, call me Cark, what's yours?" He asked.

"My name is Rejan Lonar. I fly TIEs, I'm a former TIE pilot." Rejan replied, slightly intimated by the aliens teeth.

"Really? Hmm, yes, you do look like one, the way you hold yourself, the way you talk. Well, I'll show you were the other pilots meet. Follow me." Cark said as he walked out of the hanger to the meeting place.

***

Rejan and Cark walked into the briefing room to find that the other pilots were already there. They were all dressed in black TIE suits, but instead of the Imperial symbol, there was the Rebel Symbol. Two of them had their helmets on and the others had them tucked under their arm. As Rejan and Cark entered, they turned and looked at the new arrivals.

"Every one, I'd like to introduce Rejan Lonar, who just defected to the Alliance."

One of the pilots with the helmets gasped, "Rejan?" She ran over to him.

"Who are you?" Rejan asked. He'd had enough surprises today.

In response, the pilot pulled off her helmet. 

"Corra?" Rejan asked in shock. It couldn't be. Corra was a loyal Imperial supporter. What was she doing here?

"Yes, love, we have a lot to be caught up on."

***

"I can't believe that you are here!" Corra was saying to Rejan after their briefing and their sim runs. "But why? You were a pro-Imp. Why did you defect?" She asked him.

"Well, it's a long story, but Jarkar showed me the evil in the Empire's ways and that changed me." He went on to explain the Battle of Naboo and meeting up with Jarkar and buying the Starlight Runner. Corra listened and only asked a question here are there.

"Wow. I didn't know that you were at Naboo. The Star Destroyer there had to retreat after Alliance reinforcements came in."

"How do know that?" Rejan interrupted. 

"I was on a Mon Cal ship called the Soft Wake, as a Ion cannon operator."

Rejan gaped at her. "The Soft Wake? I was ordered to attack that ship, and I was shot down by one of the ion cannons."

"I hit you? I was the only ion cannon that hit a TIE. An Interceptor. Was that you?"

"Yes!"

"Ha! I finally got you in one way or another. Remember when we simmed? I promised that I would get you some day."

"Ha, ha, funny." Rejan felt his face turn red. "So, tell me, why did YOU defect?"

She took a deep breath. "I'm here because of what the Empire did to my family. On Ryahn'ful, after the battle of Endor, the Rebellion captured it. The Empire came back to find the Rebels there and leveled every city and settlement." She looked at him. "My parents, siblings, my whole life, gone in a turbolaser flash. That is why I am here."

"Oh, no, Corra" Rejan started to say.

"No, don't. It's hard enough already, with every one apologizing, the only thing that I have to do is to make the Imps pay for what they did." 

"All I have to say, is that I'm sorry."

She collapsed into his arms, sobbing.

***

Up in the base's sensor control area, Cark, working the COM-Scan, was bored. He had brought up his datapad with a reader chip in it, but he had finished that an hour ago. Now, all there was to do was stare at the COM-Scan read out until his brains oozed out his ears. Then, a tone sounded. Looking back at the read out, he saw that a large ship had entered the system. An Imperial Star Destroyer. Cark jumped out of his seat, and ran for the comm controls. "Commander," He barked into it, "This is Lieutenant Nah'gd! We have an Imp Star heading for orbit! ETA 10 minutes! I recommend that we start the evacuation code!"

"Copy, Lieutenant Nah'gd. Tell the starfighter command to scramble all fighters to escort the evac ships out! Get sensors and weather control to start their scanning! I want a clear path out of here!"

"Yes sir! I'm on it!"

***

A shrill siren jolted Rejan and Corra back into reality. 

"That's the invasion alarm!" Corra shrieked, "We're under attack!"

The intercom came on and the starfighter controller came on, "Attention, Attention, this is starfighter control. The base is under attack. All personal report to your evac ship or station. All pilots, report to your ships at once!" 

Rejan and Corra sprang up and ran all the way to the hangers.

***

Xisark Nrh'fe, a Fallen, stared down at the read out on the weather control sensor pod. "Hey, Cark," He called to the Narvack who was at the sensors pod, "Confirm this for me, plot that Imp Star over that low pressure center to the south of the base." An image popped up on his monitor. "Yep, that Star Destroyer is right over it. That means" The console started beeping. "that, Oh Sithspit. Commander, we have incoming wind twisters, heading for the base, massive ones, and there are five of them. I recommend that we evacuate NOW!" He turned to the console. "That Star Destroyer is blocking the escape routes to the east south and west, the only way out is" He paused "Sith, the only way out is through the twisters. GET THE EVAC SHIPS OUT NOW!" He bellowed to Control. "BEFORE THE STORMS GET TO CLOSE!"

***

The hanger was a scene of chaos, techs, running to fuel fighters and ships, and the base personnel running to get to the evac ships. Rejan and Corra tore down the hall to the TIE hanger, blasts from the Destroyer hammering the base making them stumble. They got the ready room and jumped into their suits. Jamming on their helmets, they took off for the TIEs. The other pilots were just ahead of them. They got into their fighters and started the warm up sequence. Their squadron leader came on the comm, "Starfire squadron report in." He said, oblivious to the chaos below them. 

"SF 1 here"

"Starfire 2 two lit and ready to go."

"Starfire 3 ready."

"Starfire 4 in the green."

"SF 5 here." Corra said 

"Starfire 6 here."

"Starfire 7 ready to beat some imp's brains."

Finally Rejan's turn came up. "Starfire 12 here, give'm hell."

"Starfire leader here, get ready to launch, Flight One, you're covering evac ships 1-5, Two, 6-10, Three, 11-15. Got that? Flight One, Launch!" 

The four fighters screamed out of the bay. 

"Flight Two, Launch!"

Rejan tightened his grip on the control yoke. 

"Flight Three, Launch!"

Rejan punched the throttle and shot out of the bay. He glanced at the assigned heading and gasped. "SF leader, Twelve here, is this heading correct? It's right through those twisters!"

"Affirmative, 12, right through them."

Rejan heard the other pilots chatter as they escorted the evac ships out of the base area. Turbolaser blasts streaked above them, hitting one of the freighters loaded down with equipment and personnel. Rejan's mood turned to anger at the imperials, who were shooting down evac ships, killing thousands. He focused on flying, through the deadly winds that would destroy a ship and any thing in it's path.

The first of the evac ships were entering the storm now. They sped out, but were getting buffered by cross winds and were being thrown about. The evac ship that was hit by laser fire was sucked into the nearest twister and hurtled to the ground. An explosion blew out from out the bottom of the twister, hitting another ship, sending it into a spin, sending it in between two other twisters and out of the storm. 

Rejan's flight entered the twister storm then, the last five evac ships, including the Starlight Runner flying into the strong winds of the storm. 

***

Captain Sorgas of the Star Destroyer Predator, peered over the tech who was working their experimental weapon. Sorgas had his tacticians develop it for a world much like this one and he was excited to give it the first battle test. Using the Star Destroyer's repusors, they created a low-pressure center south of the base. People already on the world had seeded the air to create a large thunderstorm. With the low-pressure center sucking the storm to it, the storm created five large air twisters. So far, they had watched with amusement as the rebels fleeing INTO the storm, unable to go any other direction other than through it, for the Intrepid's support ships were blasting those areas with all the fire power they had. _The rebel pilots were good all right, but they could not possibly escape that._ He thought to him self. Then he noticed the rebel ships that were exiting the storm, fleeing for space. 

"Engines! Take us out to space! Guns, prepare to finish off those rebels!" He shouted.

***

Rejan's tiny starfighter was buffered and thrown around by the powerful winds of the storm. "Starfire squadron!" He heard over he comm, "Bring up your shields!"

__

Shields? What shields? He thought, _TIE fighters have no shields! _Then he saw the button marked SHIELD ACTIVATION' below the button was a read out panel with shield specs and power. He reached over and hit it. The read out panel pinged and turned green. Then a small bar came up and read 100 percent'. About half the warning screeches and red warning lights went out with the shield's activation. Rejan, a little more confident now, punched the speed up a little more and tore into the next part of the storm. 

"Aaaaaaahhh!" came a voice over the comm. Looking over at the monitor that showed the rest of the squadron. On the board, SF 6 was zipping around far faster than the TIEs could normally go. He frowned and keyed the comm. "SF leader, my main tracking board is malfunctioning, can you confirm were SF 6 is?" 

"Copy, 12," the board remained the same. _What the_ Looking out the view port he saw SF 6. The pilot was caught in one of the massive twisters as was being hurtled around the vortex. Thinking quickly, Rejan had the TIE's computer calculate were the other pilot would be. Then, flying to the side of the twister that SF 6 would come the closest to, he waited for the other ship to come around. The other TIE came whipping around the twister right were the computer projected. Switching the controls to the pad on the bottom of the fighter he hit the button. The bright yellow emergency disk shot out from Rejan's TIE to SF 6's TIE. It hit the other Interceptor right on the canopy hatch and held fast. Rejan hit the RETRACT' button and the cable began to reel it, taking the damaged TIE with it. Rejan was afraid that the line would rip off the hatch and send the TIE into a free fall and kill the other pilot.

"SF 12, What are you doing?!" one Of the X-Wing pilots shouted over the comm, not seeing the other TIE that Rejan was dragging , "Get out of there!"

Ignoring him, Rejan thumbed the throttle, and shot out of the storm clouds.

***

The Predator leveled off over the edge of the storm, trying to find the leak were the rebels were getting out. With the other two Victory Class Star Destroyers, the Predator was able to pick off some of the larger evac ships, but not the smaller ones that were more important, as that they contained personnel and equipment that the alliance must not get. Then, a large group of ships burst out of the storm clouds. Picking off speed, they sped for the edge of the planet's gravity well. 

"Launch all starfighters!" The captain shouted to the starfighter controller, and then turning to the comm controls, "Contact Imperial Director Isard, Have her send re-enforcements." 

TIE fighters shot out from the landing bays of the massive destroyer towards the rebel fleet. The rebels saw them coming and launched theirs too. 

"Contact the Holder. Have them jump in immediately."

***

"Looks like we're going to get out of here!" a voice said over the comm. The pilots cheered as they left the gravity well and prepared to enter hyperspace. Then, another ship jumped back into real space. An Imperial Indictor Cruiser. Suddenly a new gravity well appeared, one generated by the Indictor. They were going no where.

"Starfire Squadron, prepare to engage!" SF leader shouted over the comm. "TIE fighters coming in at 34 by 23 mark 7!" 

Rejan felt the adrenaline race through him. He gripped the control yoke tighter as the first wave of TIEs came up on to them. Triggering his lasers, he fired again and again at the incoming foes. With his shields up, some of the shots that would have destroyed his fighter just glanced off his fighter. Chatter rang through the comm as the squadrons planned their attacks.

"Starfire Squadron, we've been assigned to hit that indictor with Nightfire Squad, the X-Wings, target the gravity well projectors first, the evac ships need to get out first."

"SF Squadron. This is Nightfire squadron, cover our starboard flank when we head in on our attack run."

"This is SF eight, Three flight, we have the incoming TIEs, coming in at 92 degrees."

Rejan swerved and followed the other fighters as they attacked a squadron of the Predator's TIE fighters. One of the Starfire members exploded at the other TIEs came into firing range. 

"Three flight, go for their port side!" a voice came on over the comm. Rejan looked for the origin of the transmission on his primary board. A YT-1600 burst into the fight, it's Quad lasers blasting away.

"Jarkar?" He asked.

"Yep. The people I've got wouldn't just scamper away, so they manned the quads. Looked like you needed some help."

Another squadron of TIEs came their way, as well as the A-Wing squadron, Lightning Squadron. The fast little fighters wove their way into the fight and blasted apart the incoming squadron. 

"Starfire! Move to that Indictor, we've got the last chance to blast it before more TIEs arrive." 

The indictor was now battered, from all of the hits and blasts it had gotten from the other rebel fighters. The Starfire TIEs came in, firing. 

"Seven, watch out for that ion cannon, it's still active!"

"Shield down!"

"Twelve! Heads up!" 

Rejan looked for the danger, to find a turbolaser blast coming straight for him. He brought the fighter around, but the Powerful blast hit his wing, vaporizing it and sending him into a tail spin. His disabled fighter spun out from the indictor, back towards the open space, out from the battle. 

"Rejan, coming up behind you!" Jarkar's voice came up on the comm. The Starlight Runner loomed before him, the bay doors opened. Rejan felt the fighter jerk as the ship's tractor beam latched onto the fighter. Then, he was in an the bay doors sealed closed and he was safe. For the time being.

***

Ysanne Isard's figure was projected over Captain Sorgas figure as he made his report on the battle. The hologram had traveled over light years to the outer rim, but that had not made any of the bitter anger that shone in her mismatched eyes dissipated over that distance as she heard the report. 

"You failed, Captain Sorgas, in trying to eliminate that rebel base. I will not tolerate another failure. Follow them, and eliminated them. I have an agent that has just been infiltrated in to that base. He will send me a tracking signal soon. Follow it."

***

The rebel fleet came out of hyperspace over the planet Narfel, a plains and forest planet with three moons. The Evac ships went down to the surface while the combat ships stayed in orbit, on watch. Rejan was ready to go when they got there. He boarded his TIE fighter and rejoined his squadron. 

When he got back to the warship Intrepid, he found that there were only a couple of casualties in the battle. Corra found him quickly. 

"There you are! Where were you?" She asked as he saw her and walked in her direction. I caught another flight in." He said. "It's nice to know that you're still around." 

She smiled thinly. "Yes, by my wingman was vaped. I hope she died quickly." She looked at her feet. "Look, I mean that we both nearly died in that battle. But next time" She trailed off. " I just want to be with you in the future Rejan, but being fighter pilots, well, I just don't know."

Another pilot came up to them then, breaking off Rejan's reply. "Rejan Lonar? Starfire 12?" He asked when he reached them.

"Yes. That's me." Rejan said looking over the man. He was dressed in Starfire colors, and had a bacta bandage on his arm and head. He looked to be about sixteen or seventeen. "What can I do for you?"

"My name is Kev Darnet. Starfire 6. You saved my live with that rescue. I just wanted to thank you." He looked at Rejan, "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt anything."

"No, don't worry about it. And you're welcome, I couldn't just do nothing and let you die." He grinned. "Besides, we need all the help we can get. You could use some instruction though, would you like some help learning?" 

The kid grinned. "Thanks! Yeah, I really could use some help. That was my first live mission, getting those people out."

"Okay, meet me in the simm room in an hour or two. No wait, comlink me when you're settled in."

***

The kid was good alright, but not good enough. Rejan watched as he flew into an obvious ambush, where a TIE drew him to a cloud of more TIEs. The hatch to his simm pod hissed opened and Kev crawled out. "How'd I do?" He asked. 

"Well to but it bluntly, no, not very good. But better than others that I have seen. First off, you fly WAY too fast and you focus all of your attention on your target. You see, most pilot have something that they call situation awareness, and they know what is going on around them. When you focus all of your attention on one target, you forget about what happens around you. See what I mean?"

"I think so."

"Good. Now with tactics. When in battle, control will send us flight plans and things like that so that we can co-ordinate our attacks. But, we also should know some basic attacks and maneuvers. And you should also know the enemy's tactics as well. In your last simm, that TIE brought you into an ambush, that was a very basic tactic that all pilot know. So if you'll get back into that simm pod, I'll teach you a couple. 

***

BEEP! BEEP! Rejan comlink sounded. Picking it up from the counter, he kept an eye on Kev while he simmed. He had getting better over the last couple of days, and was starting to simm against other pilots. "Yes?" He asked the person at the other end of the link. 

"It's Corra," the tinny voice came on, "Rejan, did you forget that the SF Squadron has a meeting now?"

__

Sithspawn! He had forgotten all about it. "Yes I did forget. Kev is with me. I'll bring him along." 

"Good. We start in fifteen minutes."

***

Rejan and Kev walked into the room that the Starfire Squadron had been given as a Rec/Briefing room. The rest of the Squadron was there, including the back-up pilots and techs. Something was going to happen. They got into formation with the other pilots and they waited for Drev Kyre, Starfire leader to come out and tell them all what this was about. He entered, with a box tucked under his arm. 

"Thank you all for coming," He told them, "first off, I would like to congratulate everyone who was in the battle. We only lost three pilots, which is less than any of the other squadrons. Next, Rejan Lonar, would you please step forward."

Rejan puzzled, took a step forward. 

"This pilot, who just joined us, demonstrated bravery and courage to the highest degree by saving another pilot at the greatest risk to himself. Therefore, I have the honor of presenting Lieutenant Lonar the Kalidor Crescent. It is extremely rare for a new pilot to get this, but you have proved yourself as worthy of having it." Drev smiled as he put the bird of prey metal around Rejan's neck, "Don't look so uptight Rejan, if it will make you feel better, you can step back." The other pilots laughed and started clapping.

"Next, Flight Officer Denare, step forward please." Corra took a step forward. "Again for excellent flight skills and leadership capacity, You are now hereby presented the rank of Lieutenant." Corra's face broke into a huge grin as she accepted the new rank patch. She stood back and whispered into Rejan's ear. 

"Now you can't order me around."

***

The Starfire Squadron flew out into space, on patrol duty. Rejan had been moved into Corra's flight, and was now her wingman. Their flight roared off, vectoring off to the east, watching for any danger. The star that Narfel orbited was just coming up over the edge of the planet, soaking every thing in a golden light. The TIEs broke off again, this time into pairs and spread out. Rejan flipped on the comm monitor and hyperspace tracker. With the two, he could detect any ships on their way in. 

"Rejan?" Corra's voice came on, "Are you there?"

"Yep. Anything coming our way?"

"No, but there is an asteroid coming in. Moving fast."

"Hmm, probably the result of a collision. I'll check it out." He rocketed off towards the asteroid. He reached over and flicked on the scanners. "It's got a lot of metal on it, and its on a vector that will past the planet."

"Try a comm check."

"A comm check on a asteroid? Okay, but there won't be anything on there."

"Just do it."

"Alright, alright, I'm going." With that, he glanced at the comm monitor. "Well, well, there is a comm link that is transmitting on it."

"Yes, that's what I noticed. What do you think?"

"First, I'll do a fly-by, you call in the rest of the flight and alert the base. Then I'll neutralize any defenses and comm towers or antenna. Got that?"

"I'm good to go."

"Right, I'm starting my run now." Rejan finished as he sped towards the asteroid. Now that he was closer, he could see comm antenna, sensors and power cells all over it. And what looked like auto guns. They turned to him and let off a round of laser fire. _I really hope that Corra is getting those other pilots!_ He thought to him self as he swung out of the way. The bolts missed him by about meter, and then the guns re-aimed themselves at him. He activated his shields, and plowed into the fire zone. He rolled his TIE on to the port wing and shot out of the engagement zone. The guns were still targeting him. He whipped the tiny fighter around for another pass. This time, he fired before he was in range. This, he hoped would throw off the targeting for a couple of minutes. It worked and the guns were still firing at him but not as close as before. "Gotcha!" He muttered as he fired at the cannons. They exploded into a sheet of flames that extinguished themselves when the air in the computers when out. Then, something launched it self from the asteroid. Rejan looked in disbelief. It was another TIE fighter! It came at him, blasting away even before it got into range. Rejan swore and rolled to the right as plasma bursts shot past him. The other fighter followed him, still blasting, and was making maneuvers that would crush a living pilot in their seat, with an internal compensator or not. Then it hit him, this was a droid fighter, taking commands from the main computer on the asteroid. He hit the comm jammer and watched the results. The other ship cartwheeled away, firing at nothing. 

"Coming up behind you eight!" he heard a familiar voice call out. Corra and the rest of the flight were on their way and the Starlight Runner. They also had a boarding shuttle made from a TIE Bomber. Rejan knew that it had to be filled with techs and soldiers. It connected with the asteroid which was still heading past the planet but Rejan's jamming was preventing any signals from getting out. 

"Rejan, What happened?" Corra asked over the comm. "Have the defenses been neutralized?" 

"Yes. There was an auto TIE that was part of that, but when I jammed the comm signals, it went haywire."

"Good. There are techs boarding it, maybe they will be able to find out what it send off."

"I hope so. I wonder how it found us."

"I don't know. But I don't like the idea of how it found us."

"Well, I do have an idea, do you think that some one gave the location to the Imps?" 

"I hope not. But what will they do when they find out that it's been stopped?" 

Rejan thought about that for a moment. "Well, they would probably dest" His eyes widened. "Boarding team! Evacuate target asteroid! Repeat: EVACUATE TARGET ASTEROID!" He screamed into the comm.

The commander responded immediately "What? We just go here!"

"EVACUATE! NOW!" Rejan shouted. "THAT ASTEROID MAY HAVE A SELF-DESTRUCT!"

That got them going. The shuttle lifted off and sped off from the asteroid. Then a moment later, the asteroid was ripped apart by an enormous explosion. Debris were shooting out from the explosion. 

"Rejan!" Corra shouted. "Get out of there!" 

__

What? Rocky bits were flying towards him. He couldn't get out of the way in time! 

Then, laser bursts shot past him, hitting several large chunks, spinning them out of the way. The Starlight Runner, with it's bay doors opened, shot over head, blasting more of the chunks. Rejan felt the tractor beam grab hold and pull him in.

***

" So you see, the probe was discovered and destroyed." Ysanne Isard's agent was explaining before a hologram of her. "There was nothing we could do."

"The loss of the probe is not tragic, but keep watch for any nosing around. I do not want my agents caught and interrogated."

"Yes, Madam Director, I have to go now. The encryption for this line is good, but so are the slicers here."

"Then go. But plant some evidence that the spy is Lonar. It will draw some attention away from you." 

***

Rejan lay in his bunk, thinking about the battle when some one knocked on the door. "Come in." he called, not wanting to get up. Jarkar an Kev entered. 

"How are you doing?" he asked. "Were you damaged when your fighter was crippled?"

"Nope, I'm find, just a bashed head when the tractor beam took hold." He told the Ryn.

"Again, I am most sorry that that happened."

"Don't worry about it. A little painkiller helped." He smiled at the Ryn. "Thanks for the save back there. I would have been still floating around if now for you."

"Don't worry about it." Jarkar replied. Rejan noticed that we was a little tense. "

"What's wrong?" He asked him. "You look a little uptight."

"Oh, it's nothing, just after battles, I am like this. Don't worry about it." He looked around. "I've got to get going, I have to make a call to my home clan. See you around."

Kev stayed with Rejan. "So when are we going to be working again. I mean I know you're not an instructor but those tips really helped me a lot."

Rejan stared at the bottom of the bunk above him. "Well, umm hmm.. well when I get some free time to work with you. We have missions for the next week and not much free time. Let's see what happens." 

Kev thought about that for a minute. "Okay, Sure. I've got to get back to the mess area, I'm meeting someone there. See ya around." 

"See ya." Rejan said as the Kev left. Then he lay down on to his bunk, and hoped for some sleep.

Fate however, deprived him of that luxury. Some one knocked on his door. "What!?" He shouted. 

The door slide open to revel two alliance security personnel. "Come with us," the one on the right said. "We need you for an hour."

"Sure, hold on a second," Rejan said, puzzled at what he could have done. He got his boots on and followed the guards. "What's going on?" He asked, as they strode down the hall way.

"The commander wants you for questioning.."

"Questioning? What for? I've done nothing."

"Hey, pal, I don't make the rules. Maybe you saw something or did something. I don't know."

They walked down to the commander's office.

***

In the small holo booth that the rebels had supplied for personnel on Narfel, Ysanne Isard stared down at her intelligence agent that had been stationed in the rebel fleet. "So this is the location. Very good. It will be sent to the fleet. They should arrive in a couple of days. In the mean time, plant some evidence that a TIE pilot or former imperial is the leak. You know what to do."

"Yes Director, it shall be carried out at once." 

***

"So, you just happened to find the data link on your first day here." The commander was saying to Rejan in the small briefing room on planet. "And right after you have arrived and the link found, an imperial task force just happened to find us, is that right?" he continued. 

"Yes sir." Rejan replied. "I told you, I have defected from the Imperial service and I want to fight them, not you."

"You say that you were an Imperial, what missions did you do?" his interrogator asked.

"I participated in the battle of Endor, as well as some minor ones." He looked at the people in the room. "Look, if I'm an imperial who just came here, then ALL of the former imperials should also be suspected."

"Correct, except for one thing, the timing. You arrived in time to set up the data link and call in the fleet."

"But I didn't! It could be any one."

"Yes, but all of these people in this base have been with the rebellion from the start. They want to succeed. The TIE squadron has been here for two months. Why now?"

"I don't know."

"We are going to let you go for now. Until you are cleared, you are off the active duty roster and are deprived of all comm privileges."

"Yes sir." Rejan said, in a dull tone.

They lead Rejan out of the room and back to his own cabin. When he got there, he found Corra standing out in front of his door.

"There you are! I've been looking all over for you!" She exclaimed as he drew near. She sprang towards him, wrapping her arms around him in an embrace. "What's wrong?" She asked when she felt his distress.

"I've been taken off the Duty roster. They think I'm a spy." 

Corra looked at him wide eyed. "What? You, a spy?"

"Oh, don't you start too, I am fighting to avenge the people who have been killed by the imperials- by me. I want to make sure that the galaxy isn't going to be an imperial killing ground, so I'll do my part."

"I'm sure that you will. But let me make a suggestion, go to the simm room and practice, so when they find that you are innocent, you'll be in top shape."

***

TIE fighters swarmed all around him, firing, and as Rejan tried to evade, he ran into turbolaser fire was destroyed. "Blast!" he muttered as the top of the simulator opened, letting in harsh white light. He climbed out and stretched. He had done three simulations that day and was exhausted. The Starfire squadron was on patrol and Rejan was alone for the moment. The door hissed, reveling three Rebels, a human and two Devorians. They didn't look like pilots and they certainly weren't here for a conversation. Spotting Rejan, the human waved the two Devorians over. 

"So," he sneered, "you're the spy in this fleet. We just stopped by to let you know that you're not welcome here." The two Devorians advanced slowly, as Rejan backed away. "We're also here to teach you a lesson, one that will show you what happens to spies." He growled. "we don't like them and they're not welcome."

Rejan was still backing away, towards one of the emergency buttons on the wall. "Listen buddy, let me tell you some thing. If I was a spy, I wouldn't be here would I? And another little tidbit. I'm not the spy, I don't know who is but it is not me."

"Really? That's not what I heard." The other countered. 

__

Just two more meters, stall them hold them off, but hit that button! Rejan thought to himself as he backed closer. Then one of the Devorians lunged at him and knocked him to the floor, knocking the wind out of Rejan as he hit the floor hard. There would be no talking out of this one. He kicked the alien with his free leg, scoring a hard one. The alien howled, then punched him on the right side of his face. Pain exploded in his face and he heard something snap. Ignoring the pain, he managed to squirm out from beneath the alien. Spinning around, he caught the Devonian in the back of the head. The alien slumped down on the floor, unconscious. The other two jumped at him, fury burning in their eyes. Rejan brought his fist back and leveled off a punch. Then, he took a step and slammed his hand down on the emergency button and then prepared to fight the two others. But, outnumbered, he was over whelmed. The human grabbed his arms, pulling them back. Pain jolted up Rejan's spine as the man dug his knee into his back. The other alien drew back and let off a series of hits that sent even more pain coursing through him. A couple more snaps and crunched reveled that the alien was doing a thorough job. Rejan screamed as he felt his breast bone shatter. Then, nothing. 

***

In the control room, Chark and Xisark were on watch. It was the usual watch the COM-scan and ship functions and alarms. They were chatting for a while when a tone sounded from on of the consoles. Chark swiveled on his chair and peered down at the console's screen. Then he spun around again. "Alert a security team. We have an emergency alert in simm room four!" He blurted out to Xisark who turned and repeated the order. "I'll head down and see what's happening." He continued, strapping on his blaster. "Hold down the fort."

***

Chark and the Security team arrived at the simm room to find a horrible scene. A TIE pilot was being held up by a human and was being hit again and again by a Devorian. Another Devorian was on the floor, dead or unconscious. Chark recognized the TIE pilot. It was Rejan! He drew out his blaster and pumped a stun bolt into the Devorian. The human started to draw his out too, but on of the Security members blasted him with a Forego stun gun. Bolts of blue electricity moved over the human, causing him to shriek and fall to the floor. 

Chark ran over to his fallen friend and knelt over his still form. "Rejan! Rejan!" he shouted, hoping to evoke a response. But Rejan remained still. Blood covered his face and one of his arm bones was broken, jutting out from his skin. He whirled to one of the Security members. "Call a medical team up here now!" He bellowed. The man brought out his comlink and called the medcenter. In a couple of minutes, three paramedics rushed in, dragging along a repulor-stretcher. They placed a life-support sensor on him, and got him onto the stretcher. Then, they raced back to the medcenter, try and save him. 

Chark was afraid that it was too late to save his friend. 

***

__

He's lucky, another couple of . . . We might not have saved him. What . . .Will he recover? . . . Another dunking will . . . necessary. Rejan slowly and painfully regained conscious. Voices were all around him, hurting his ears. The voices faded in and out, confusing him. He lay on a medcenter bed, with monitors humming all around him. He opened his eyes, taking in the scene. _How did I get here? _He thought to himself. He looked down at his body. There were marks all over him, were bones had been broken. And the pain was mostly gone. 

Then he remembered what had happened. Panic flowed through him. He started to struggle. The doctors started shouting out orders, making his head hurt even more.

"He's moving!"

"Restraint!"

"Tranquilizer!" 

Rejan felt a needle push into his back and everything went black.

***

Corra ran down the corridor to the medcenter. She had gotten a call from Chark, who told her to get on down to the medcenter. Rejan had been attacked and he might not survive. She slammed into someone as she rounded a corner. They both fell down in a heap. She looked at the person. It was Chark! 

"There you are." He growled, "I was just coming to get you. Rejan will be ok. They just gave him another dunking and he's healing fine."

"Oh thank you!" Corra cried. "Thank you so much!" And then she gave him a hug. 

***

Ysanne Isard stared down at her spy that had been infiltrated into the Rebel fleet. "You WHAT?!" She demanded. "You set up Lonar to be attacked?! Do you even realize how much of a risk that was?!" She shouted at him.

"Yes director, but it was essential for me to get him out of the way." He narrowed his eyes. "Besides, more attention will be turned to him, in the form of guards and personnel. It should free up some stations for slicing." 

"You have better be right."

***

By the time Corra made it down to the medcenter, Rejan was through with his final Bacta dunking. Four guards stood at the entrance to the medcenter and asked for her ID as she went in. 

Rejan was lying on a bed reading something off of his datapad. He looked up as she entered. "Corra!" He exclaimed, when he saw who it was. "Coming to pick up the pieces?" She laughed at his attitude towards his condition. 

"How are you feeling?" She asked him. 

"Oh, ok I guess. Getting hurt like that was not very fun at all." He grinned. Then his expression turned serious. "Have you hound any thing out about the data link?" 

"Nope, I've been flying patrol all week. It's very tiring."

He sighed. "Well, as soon as I'm better, I'll find him. That lousy son-of-a-sith spy will pay for this. I promise you that."

Corra smiled slightly. "Yeah, he will."

***

The medic droid leaned over Rejan with a scanner. "Hold still for another moment sir, the scan is almost complete."

Rejan, laying on his bunk tensed and tried to remain still. "I'm trying. It's just uncomfortable to lie on a cold metal surface like this."

"As I have already explained, the cooler surface will sharpen the thermal scans better. Done. You can get up now." He rolled back, allowing Rejan to hop out of the bunk and get into a jumpsuit. "Can I go now?"

"As soon as I file the report and exit forms, you may leave." The droid replied.

"Great. When will that be?" Rejan asked.

"The reports will be filed in about twenty minutes." The droid told him.

"Okay. Can I work on this computer terminal for a while?" He asked the droid as they entered the office

"Certainly, but there are restrictions on were you can go."

"Yeah, Yeah, I know." He sat down on the seat in front of the monitor. He sat there for a minute, thinking of were to go first. Then it hit him. The comm records! He smiled to him self, and keyed in the command to let him look at the records of the holo-net calls out of the system. There were fifteen out system, and four were to. Coruscant. Very interesting. The call was bounced all over the place. Garqi, Borleias, Duro, all planets that were under Imperial control. 

Rejan shot out of his seat and ran to the door. "I'll be right back!" He shouted to the 2-1B as he ran through the door. 

***

The Commander and his aide were looking over a datapad when Rejan burst into the room. He shot off a salute as they turned around. 

"Lieutenant Lonar. At ease." The commander said after they returned the salute. "Do you always have to barge into peoples offices like that?" He asked

"Sorry sir, but I found some calls to Coruscant from this base via the holo-net system."

The two officers looked stunned. "The holo-net?" The commander asked. Then he turned to the aide. "Did you check anything other than the X1 channels?" 

"No sir. My team was only expecting that any spies would use channels other than the holo-net ones." He said, looking at Rejan. "How did you find these calls?" He asked him. "I imaging that Imperials would cover their tracks."

"He did sir. I checked out of system calls and did a back check on the relays. I sort of followed the calls to their end point."

"By the sith, we didn't think of that." The aide whispered to himself. "Can you bring the files up on this datapad?" he asked him. 

"Sure." Rejan went back to the archives and in a minute, he had the calls. 

"That's so simple. Okay, now to break the encryption and find out who made those calls." He turned to Rejan, "In the meantime, head on down to the comm area, and let every one down there know that the comm area is being closed up for the time being. Oh- and this information is now classified, so keep this breach to yourself. You will be briefed on it later."

***

Rejan ran all the way to the comm area. He decided to let each person there know by going into the comm booths and telling them that the comm area was closing down. When he entered the comm area, there was many people waiting in lines for the comm booth's occupants to leave. Rejan walked up to the front of the lines. "Can I have your attention please?" Everyone fell silent, "This comm area is being closed for the time being. There is to be no more comm calls until it is opened again." He informed the waiting rebels. "You will have to let you message wait for a while. I apologize for the inconvenience." 

"Why? Why is the comm center being closed down?" some on e shouted. 

"You'll have to talk to the Commander. I'm just following orders." He motioned to the doors. "You'll all have to leave now." 

Most of the people in the comm center left, and after a minute, only Rejan and a guard remained in the room. "Can you help?" Rejan asked him, "I need to get these people out of the booths."

"Sure. I'll start on this end, you start on that one." The guard said, heading off to the other end of the room. 

One by one, they entered the booths and told the occupants that they had to leave. Some of them begged for two more minutes and a couple threatened them. The others just signed off and left. Rejan entered the next booth. 

And found a hologram of Ysanne Isard standing over the holo plate. Drawing out his blaster, he pumped a stun blast into the projector. The hologram flicked and died. The figure who was talking to the Imperial turned and was reveled.

***

It was Jarkar. Rejan gaped at him. "Jarkar? How.. How could you?" He asked is stunned disbelief. "I thought that you were"

"Your friend? Ally?" He asked, and then laughed bitterly. "I was never any of these things, Lonar. I needed you to get me into the rebel fleet. So you came to me at Naboo, It was the perfect opportunity to get in. A former Imperial, one who I could lay blame on. It was a perfect cover. After I planted evidence that you were the spy, it took most suspicions off of me. So I could work unhampered."

Rejan couldn't believe this. "So you were the one who opened the data link? And the one who called the fleet and asteroid in?" He accused him.

"Yes, but all I had to do was to supply the coordinates of the worlds." He looked at the ruined holo-projector. "In fact, the ones for this world as well. The fleet that chased us from Hyrpor 9 will be here shortly." He drew a blaster out from his tunic. "But I'm afraid that you won't be here Rejan. Good by, and good riddance."

***

As Jarkar aimed his blaster at Rejan, Rejan lunged at him, intent on killing the traitor. Jarkar jumped out of the way, and fired the blaster at Rejan. But Rejan had side-stepped and dealt out a kick to the Imperial. The Imperial would kill him if he didn't get out of there. With Jarkar winded, he forced his way out of the door, and looked back to see were the Imperial was. Jarkar was standing there with the blaster aimed at Rejan's chest and he fired a deadly bolt at him. The pilot twisted around to try and avoid the blast, but a shearing pain in his chest reveled that he hadn't. He couldn't breath. _Lung punctured. I have to hit the emergency button._ He thought to himself as black spots appeared at the edges of his vision. He started to crawl towards the red button, but a foot pinned him down. _He knows that I am dead, but wants to make sure._ Rejan realized, his heart sinking. Then he heard a shot and blackness over took him.

***

BEEP! BEEP! 

Corra moaned as her comlink sounded. "Yes?" She asked as she picked it up. 

"This is the Commander. I sent Rejan down to the Comm center. We found the link with us and the Imperials and we caught a new transmission just now. Get down to the comm center and warn Rejan." The commander said. "This is very important. Go!"

"Yes Sir!" Corra said, and she bolted down the corridor to the comm center. She heard a blaster shot as she reached the center and another one soon after that. Fearing for the worst, she ran full tilt into the room and skidded to a halt. Jarkar was standing there, blaster in hand, ready to shoot Rejan, who appeared to have been shot already. 

__

Jarkar? The Imperial spy? The young woman thought to her self in disbelief. She drew out her blaster and blasted a shot off at him. Jarkar, now noticing her presence in the room, fired back, forcing her into the hall. She hit an alarm button and ran back into the room. Leveling her blaster at the Imperial, she fired off a shot. It missed hitting Jarkar fully, but it hit his blaster. The weapon began to smoke and he threw it in her direction. Corra ducked back, behind a chair. The blaster exploded, throwing debris every where. She leaned out and shot again, this time hitting Jarkar in the stomach. He collapsed, but started for the door. 

"Oh no you don't." Corra whispered as she aimed again. Her next shot only gave him the intuitive to move faster, and by the time she aimed again, he was almost out the door. 

The door hissed open and a squad of rebel foot soldiers rushed in. 

"What's happening?" The leader asked her.

"Rejan here found an Imperial spy, who just blasted his way out." Corra quickly explained to him, and pointed to the door. "He went that way. Go! I'll call a medic."

She leaned over Rejan. He was unconscious and barely breathing. She flipped him on to his back and saw that he had been shot. "Hang in there Rejan." She whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

***

Jarkar, his wind and nerves back, ran down the hall to the hanger bay. He had to leave now. _Isard won't be happy about this._ He thought to himself as he reached the hanger. A couple of guards were around the hanger, talking into a comlink. He couldn't get past them. He skidded around a side corridor ran down it. Reaching into his flight suit, he pulled out a small yet powerful blaster. He heard some one shout and a blaster fired. Blue stun bolts shot past his head and sped down the corridor. Reaching an intersection, he turned and let off a couple of shots at his pursuers. He heard someone cry out and hit the floor. He looked around the corner again to let off another shot. And nearly got his head blown off by another blast. He abandoned his firing and took off down the corridor to the escape pod bays. Another shot flew past him, from a side passage and he new that there were more rebels around after him. He reached the escape pod bays, he ran for the nearest one. Throwing the hatch open, he dove into it and hit the launch button. The hatch sealed, and a moment later, the pod gave a great jolt that pasted him to the seat and he was free from the ship. Reaching for the controls, he maneuvered the pod out form the rebel fleet. He shut off the locator beacon so that he wouldn't be re-captured and sat back. After he had called Ysanne Isard, he hid a beacon on board on of the capital ships. The fleet that chased them from Hyrpor 9 would be there in a moment. He reached up and peeled the mask, that made him appear to be Ryn, off. He was really human, with dark brown hair and a thin face. Peeling off the suit revealed a dark Imperial uniform. This one was different than most others, for it had a matching vest which held many little tools for accessing computers. There was also another blaster and a couple of grenades there too. Jarkar reached up for the beacon and inserted a datacard that would send out a new locator beacon to the Imperial fleet. They would pick him up and he would report to Ice-heart.

***

Corra paced out in front of the scanning/emergency room in the medcenter. Rejan was inside, being looked over. A medic had come out and told her that Rejan was in serious condition and was in a bacta tank. Tears streaked her face as she heard each report. The bacta was working very slowly, he might stop breathing, and any number of things that could go wrong. She was sitting in one of the waiting room seats when the Imperial fleet struck. A massive jolt rocked the ship and alarms started to blare. Her comlink sounded, but then hissed as the Imperials started to jam the transmissions. She leapt up and ran for the hanger bay. She got into the hall when another jolt rocked the ship and threw her to the floor. Getting up, she half crawled, half ran down the corridor to the hanger. 

By the time she got there, the rest of the squadron was ready to go and most of the fighters were already out. _Come on Corra!_ She hissed to herself as she lurched to her fighter. She climbed up the ladder to the hatch and plopped into the seat. Jamming her helmet on, she signed on and roared out of the hanger. "SF 7 online and in the green." She reported as the black space of the system over took her. Immediately, her primary screen lit up with the attacking ships. "My stars." She whispered. "Three Star Destroyers." 

"Cut the chatter SF 2!" Starfire leader came on. "SF squadron. We have the indictor and some fighters. We are to take out the indictor so the fleet can leave. Form up."

Roaring on to the large star destroyer shaped cruiser, the Starfire squadron closed in on the indictor cruiser that was trapping them in the system. The ship reacted by firing it's quad-laser cannons at the incoming fighters. 

"SF Squad! Watch it!" Some one called. "That ship is armed!" 

Enemy TIEs shot over them, firing at the rebels. The shielded TIEs that made up the rebel squadrons tore through the fighter screen with a vengeance and went for the cruiser with a savage longing. The shields on the indictor turned black. Hull plating darkened and melted under the assault. 

"I'm hit!" Corra glanced down at her main screen. Leader was spiraling away from the main group. "Corra, lead the SFs, and get clear. My reactor is going critical. Good Luck!" 

With a bright flash, his fighter detonated in the middle of a TIE group, destroying one of them and throwing the others off course. 

"SF squadron! Break off your attack!" the commander came on. "Break off!" 

__

What?! Then her friend-foe board lit up with a large red ship. One of the Star Destroyers had broken off from it's assault on the rebel cruisers and was heading straight for the wounded Indictor cruiser to protect it. Bringing it's guns to bear, it fired at the rebel fighters. Squadrons disappeared in a flash of laser fire and ships tumbled, flash fried from the out burst. 

"All ships is sector four, pull out! Repeat: Pull out!" Came the command. 

The attacking fighters veered off and headed for the other Destroyers. The Destroyers fired back, but with out the element of surprise, they could not track the faster star fighters. 

There was something about Star Destroyers that trickled in the back of Corra's mind. _What was that General Calrissian used in the Battle of Endor?_ She thought as they headed in. Then it clicked. "All squadrons!" She called. "Move into point-blank range. Their targeting systems can't hit us if we are close in!"

Her comm unit crackled with interference as a new voice came on, "This is Commander Vargas. Move in? That's suicide! We cannot repel a Star Destroyer's fire power at that close of a range."

"Yes, but you won't have to. If the Starfighters go in, we can search out weak spots in the hull or shield and then send the targeting data back to your gunners. Then you can start hitting those ships harder. We could try and take out some guns too. Once we get inside the gun ranges, they won't be able to hit us." 

"This is Starfighter command. We only have four squadrons left free. The others are on the other ships. I don't think that four squadrons can take out the shields."

Corra shook her head. "We don't have to take out the shields, just get close enough to get sensor readings and target locks."

"That could work, but what about the TIE fighters? They would pick you off quickly."

"Have one squadron engage any TIEs and have the rest harass that Destroyer. With any luck, we can take it out and escape. Release the squadrons to me."

There was a pause. Then, "This is Liberation squadron, we're green for go." 

"This is Force leader. We're in." 

"Freedom here, ready to go."

"This is Vargas, you're cleared to attack."

At his words, the four squadrons went off for the Star Destroyer. "Freedom, Liberation and Force squadrons you take on the Destroyer. Starfire will take on the incoming TIE fighters. Try to hit the command tower. That will knock it out of commission for a while. Starfire, we have incoming TIEs at 34 mark 5. ETA is two and a half minutes."

"Copy Command." Corra responded. "Starfire Squad, we have twelve, coming in hot. Be ready to take them."

"Copy SF 2." 

"We copy SF 2"

"Comp, track the incoming fighters and plot intercept points for them with the other fighters. Then plot a scatter fire slavo to take as many of them as we can down."

DONE the new flight computer flashed up on the screen followed by a diagram of the incoming fighters. Three were coming in to attack her flight, and the rest were going to attack the other two flights. After the asteroid attack, Corra had re-organized the squadron so that they had four flights instead of the normal three. This meant that they could attack more targets at once. So far the arrangement had worked well. "Wait, we have another squadron coming around from behind us. Flight One engage T-1 and Flight Two engage T-2. . . " She heard the pilots start to complain before she finished. "Three fighters against a squadron?" Kev asked. 

". . .Flights three and four, back them up." 

The Imperial TIEs roared in, blasting away at the Rebel fighters. The flight computer was changing fast, with tactics flashing up faster than she could read. "All flights! Engage!" She shouted, and shot in to the midst of the incoming TIE fighters.

***

The enemy TIE fighters roared in, firing. Corra and her wing mates flew head on into the midst of them, retaliating. Her warning computer shrieked. She had a TIE interceptor on her tail! 

"Lead! You've picked one up!" One of her wing men called.

"Can you get him?" She replied, juking and weaving. "I can't shake him!" She cried out, as two blasts scored a hit on her shield. "Help me!"

"Hold your course. I'm inbound." She heard him reply. Seconds later, another TIE screamed in, firing. He hit the TIE dead on, causing it to explode. 

"Thanks 3." Corra said, relived. 

"All fighters return to your base ship. We are out bound!" Came the fighter control. Corra glanced out the view port. Sure enough, the indictor was drifting, with fires burning at the sides. She followed the rest of the fighters in, and landed in the main bay. 

Seconds later, the carrier jumped to light speed and left the system.

TO BE CONTINUED IN:

Rebellion Lost


End file.
